Prior to setting forth the background of the invention, it may be helpful to set forth definitions of certain terms that will be used hereinafter.
The term “turbulence” as used herein refers to a rapid variation of pressure and flow velocity in space and time that affect airplanes during flights. Turbulence affects the comfort of the passengers of the flight and may also affect the safety of the flight. Additionally, turbulence may affect the fuel consumption of the airplane. Clear-air turbulence (CAT) is the turbulent movement of air masses in the absence of any visual cues such as clouds, and is caused when bodies of air moving at widely different speeds meet. Therefore, CAT events are significantly more difficult to detect.
The term “communication device” as used herein refers to any electronic device that is provided with the ability to both transmit and receive data, usually but not exclusively, over a communication network. Communication devices may include user equipment (UE) such as hand-held mobile devices that are not integral to and may be carried onto and off of an airplane including, for example, smartphones, tablet personal computers (PCs), and laptop PCs. User equipment (UE) may be operated for example by a pilot, flight crew member or a passenger, for example, releasable secured to a dashboard mount in the cockpit so that the user equipment has a generally fixed position relative to the airplane. Additionally or alternatively, communication devices may be part of embedded airplane communication systems that are embedded in, inseparably mounted to, or integral to, airplane devices. Embedded airplane communication devices may include, for example, transmitter-responders (transponders), such as mode C transponders or mode S transponders, or Universal Access Transceivers (UATs). Communication devices may include or may be operatively connected to one or more turbulence sensor(s), communication circuit(s) including antenna(e), memor(ies), processor(s), and display(s), any combination of which may be integrated into one housing as a single device, or may be separated into different devices. Data may be transmitted between the user equipment, embedded airplane communication devices, satellites, ground communication devices, or any combination thereof over one or more wireless networks including, for example, radio, satellite, Wi-Fi (e.g. IEEE 802.11 family), cellular such as 3G or long term evolution (LTE), or any combination thereof.
FIG. 1 is a map diagram illustrating turbulence data obtained by forecast models. Map 10 shows areas that are likely to be affected by turbulence. The darker pattern indicates a likelihood of a relatively severe level of turbulence, whereas the lighter pattern indicates a likelihood of a relatively moderate level of turbulence. The data derived from the forecast models may be regularly updated and is typically based on mathematical models. The data may be generated for different timeslots and altitude ranges so that a flight route may be planned and amended accordingly.
These maps are generated via forecast models generally based on weather conditions, but suffer from severe inaccuracies due to the inability to correctly estimate the effect of the various weather conditions on turbulence. First, not all clouds lead to turbulence, and second, various conditions such as clear-air turbulence (CAT) cannot be accurately forecasted. Therefore, currently available solutions for obtaining and presenting turbulence data tend to suffer both from ‘no detection’ scenarios and ‘false alarm’ scenarios which generally undermine the reliability of turbulence monitoring.